What do you stock in your refugiums?

[spyd]

Now that my new system is running I want some opinions of what people stock in their refugiums? I am going with a 6" DSB and some chaeto. Should I put a few small pieces of live rock in there for algae to grow on in my fuge as oppose to my display tank? Anyone stock mangroves?

 

[reeffreak]

Re: Question of the Day - July 16th

sounds great for a fuge , I ran the same on my old system 6" dsb and cheato but I never did the mangroves , they are a a slow grower which means there nutrient export is slow also but they are a nice additoin to a sump, I like the look of mangroves comming out the top of a tank .

 

[spyd]

Re: Question of the Day - July 16th

Yah, mangroves would be more for aesthetics really... I was thinking of covering the fuge with an acrylic lid though to help cut down evaporation, so they might not work out.

 

[Petercar (RIP Dec 2017)]

Re: Question of the Day - July 16th

I have 5 mangrove plants  cuz my tank is so deep  24 inch deep they say to keep the tips outta the water  I did do that by tieing the bottom to rock with elastic bands  but they got dry. At the tips so I put them all in the sand bed. And there a year old now.  And they do bud at the tips. Being submerged.  But my new tank is a 18 inch deep  .so I'll try some with tips out and tips submerged and  see what ones do best ...I seen a tank thread in Michigan reefers.  There was a centre hole in a  cube and they have a square overflow  and they had rock around it like a volcano with mangroves inside the overflow

 

[Darryl_V]

Re: Question of the Day - July 16th

refugium....whats that?

Seriously though you need to grow lots of algae to make a significant difference on things.  You might find that with bio-pellets growing a lot of algae may be difficult.  You can try though....worse thing that could happen is it doesnt grow.  If you are serious about growing chaeto than I suggest a good light and circulation through there.  Mangroves are cool but not much practical use IMO.....need to be be misted daily as well.

 

[spyd]

Re: Question of the Day - July 16th

Lets be honest, daily maintenance won't happen so no mangroves.  My DSB is the main feature in the tank which I think does have value in the tank. I will try the chaeto thing as I have lots in my 75G tank. It grows there, however, there are no bio-pellts connected to that tank.

As for lighting, I am just using 2 - 6500k fluorecent floods over top of the tank. If I see no benefit from the chaeto, then I will take it offline. No point wasting electricity on the lights if there is no effects from the chaeto.